The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.

For months a special Beacon Hill commission has been investigating the surge in antisemitic incidents in Massachusetts, particularly in public schools. 

"I have a three-year-old child and right now, I think what is going on in our K-through-12 schools is reprehensible," said an emotional Sen. John Velis (D-Westfield) at Wednesday's meeting of the Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism. 

After sitting through months of testimony about soaring rates of antisemitic acts in schools and elsewhere across the state, Velis is furious about the fast-rising tide that has Massachusetts ranking fifth worst in the nation in antisemitic incidents. 

He and his fellow members met to discuss their findings in a draft report that despite extensive efforts to fight harassment of other groups, "those same districts in many cases, leave out the Jews," as Commission Co-chair Rep. Simon Cataldo (D-Concord) puts it. 

"Unmistakable antisemitism" 

For Cataldo, who is Jewish, the results of the Commission's investigation have been shocking, disclosing indifference from the head of the state's largest teacher union toward anti-Jewish images on its own website and a culture in which antisemitic incidents are "likely to be significantly underreported." 

"I can nearly guarantee you that in the first week of school there will be a swastika, a 'Heil Hitler,' some other serious antisemitic incident at a school in Massachusetts because we know it's happening all over the place," Cataldo says. "That is not OK, and that is particularly not OK in these districts, of which there are many, where we see repeated incidents of virulent antisemitism, explicit antisemitism, unmistakable antisemitism." 

The commission's draft proposals include mandatory anti-bias education and a larger role for the state in cracking down on anti-Jewish hate. 

Pushback from academics

But there's already pushback from a local group of academics, Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff, who denounce "cynical claims of antisemitism...that penalize Palestinian solidarity activism." 

But Velis isn't buying that: "Anyone who suggests that this is not an issue, I'm sorry, you are wrong, this is a profound issue." 

How much of this problem does the Commission attribute to anger over the situation in Gaza? Not much. 

Cataldo points out that threats and hate crimes against Jews were rising sharply here before the war in Gaza. And of course, the Holocaust predated the creation of the state of Israel. 

But Cataldo also offered criticism of the Jewish community, saying it "has to do a much better job of standing up for itself." 

With local districts having much more control over curriculum than the state does, that means local residents working with local school officials to make sure the commission's ideas for change have teeth.

• Antisemitism